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The top 10 dads in modern literature

It’s Father’s Day, so a bookseller has compiled a list of the best fathers on their books

Sun, Jun 15, 2014, 01:01

Best dad ever?: Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch with Mary Badham as Scout and Phillip Alford as Jem in To Kill A Mockingbird, directed by Robert Mulligan, and adapted from the novel by Harper Lee. Photograph: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

To celebrate Father’s Day, Eason has compiled a list of the top 10 dads in modern literature. “Our list of the greatest dads from the world of literature incorporates the varying traits of a great father figure,” claims Maria Dickenson, head book buyer at Eason. “From fictional dads like Ross O’Carroll Kelly who too often get it wrong, but always endeavour to get it right, to real-life stories shared by Fionnbar Walsh, the father of the inspirational teenager Donal Walsh, to childhood father figures such as Roald Dahl’s Grandpa Joe – fathers in literature from all walks of life that help us pause and reflect on the great guy who has helped shape our own world.”

The Top 10

Ross O’Carroll Kelly

Grandpa Joe Bucket: (Roald Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

Bob Cratchit (Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol)

Ned Stark (George RR Martin: Game of Thrones)

Tom Oakley (Michelle Magorian: Goodnight Mister Tom)

Pa Ingalls (Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House on the Prairie)

Atticus Finch (Harper Lee: To Kill A Mockingbird)

The Eason top three dads in literature are all real life Irish dads. We couldn’t possibly rank them, so here they are in alphabetical order:

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